630 LYMAN— BRIEF NOTES. 



What most distinguishes a man from a brute? It is, of course, 

 the reasoning power. And what gives the power to reason? Clearly, 

 it is language, the means by which reasoning is done. The cultiva- 

 tion of the power of language, how to use it readily and accurately, 

 is, then, of the highest importance. With our English language, 

 derived in so large a part from the classical languages, it seems 

 quite plain that a full understanding of it would be greatly aided 

 by a good knowledge of them. Thereby, the true significance of 

 words would be learned, their precise shades of meaning, their 

 original meaning, and the meaning that has been historically ac- 

 quired. Evidently, the most perfect knowledge of the meaning of 

 words would be gained by a study of their use in their original 

 classical languages. With a thorough knowledge of the meaning 

 of words, they could readily be used correctly in reasoning. The 

 danger of fallacies would in great measure be avoided. Some such 

 knowledge could be learned from English etymological grouping, or 

 dictionaries ; but obviously much more satisfactorily by studying 

 the classics and their languages. 



Of. 



At the age of nine years, my budding philological inclination 

 was bluntly rebuffed and checked by a reminder of my complete 

 ignorance of the meaning and etymology of even so small a word 

 as of. It has become clear that the word is closely allied to off, 

 and that it signifies that one thing may be considered concretely 

 or abstractly to be off from, or a part of, another thing. But a 

 knowledge of the precise meaning of the word does npt seem to be 

 universal, and the word seems consequently to be inaccurately used. 

 One source of error is the impression that the word is the precise 

 equivalent of the French de ; so that a supposedly literal translation 

 would sometimes introduce a Gallicism into our English. But the 

 French de is derived from the Latin dc, and means concerning, 

 quite a different meaning from our word of. The meaning of de 

 is much more correctly indicated by our adjectival relation of two 

 substantives. The French ccole dc dansc becomes dancing school ; 

 hole des mines becomes mining school, or mine school, a school in 

 regard to mines, not of mines, concretely or abstractly off from 



